3: Forgiveness
Let’s face it. Real forgiveness is incredibly tough. It’s tough for us. And it’s tough for God, too. The author Lewis Smedes calls forgiveness “love’s toughest work and love’s biggest risk.” We’ve learned that if we’re going to find freedom, or to have relationships of any kind, then one way or another we’re going to have to deal with the issue of forgiveness. And we’ve also learned that real forgiveness is not only tough, it’s com- plicated. There are all kinds of angles to forgiveness. And so we asked a large group of inmates: Where do you personally struggle the most with forgiveness? Is it with forgiving others? With being forgiven by others? With ac- cepting being forgiven by God? With forgiving God when you’re mad at him? With forgiving yourself? How about you? How would you answer? As you think about that, listen to what some of them had to say . . .
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FORGIVENESS
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